e-Book Eisenhorn (A Warhammer 40,000 Omnibus) download

Paid something in the range of $50 for it. Definitely worth at least the sticker price for the individual books. Truly superb series with a great balance of intrigue and action. It's good clean fun. I think I slightly prefer the sequel in contrast to most people but it's a marginal decision and both are excellent. Just demolished both trilogies.

I'd only quibble that the pricing is kinda ridiculous. I was curious about 40kj after reading a bunch of the wiki and got this. At $50 it's a bit harder to just throw at a friend. At the $20 range that Ravenor goes for, yeah it's a no brainer. Seems a bit unfortunate because by all accounts this is one of the best introductions to the universe. It's a great fun novel generally- forget the 40k part.

If you love epic science fiction, mind blowing environments, catastrophic battles, sinister characters, and you can overlook a few flaws, you'll love this book.

Story:
This omnibus features a trilogy of novels and two short stories chronicling the life of Imperial Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. An Inquisitor is an agent who carries out the Emperor's will and combs the galaxy in search of heretics who have been touched by the forces of Chaos. When heretics are found, they are forced to confess through nine steps of unpleasant 'interrogation.' An Inquisitor follows a strict moral code, and must be very careful not to be corrupted by the forces that he is exterminating or he himself may be hunted down and interrogated... most unpleasantly.

World:
The Warhammer 40K universe is amazing. It is designed around an empire in a tumultuous existence fighting everlasting wars for thousands of years. The galaxy is war torn and just about every object in the world has been built to kill or withstand bullets, lasers, and blasts. The people are hardened, heroic, and loyal to their emperor. Just do a Google image search for "Warhammer 40k" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

These books do an outstanding job at describing the landscapes, the vehicles, the weapons, the armor, the aliens, the demons... It will push your imagination to its limit.

Characters:
The characters are a mixed bag. Gregor Eisenhorn is well written and you understand his emotions and feel for him as he makes very difficult decisions. The rest of his allies are somewhat expendable. Many die off screen in a few words. "Fred was vaporized." Or "Fred died." Then Fred is suddenly replaced by Dave. Because of this, it is difficult to get attached to Gregor's crew.

The villains in this series are excellent. They are dark, malicious, deceiving, and usually have some pretty scary physical characteristics. One antagonist is another Inquisitor who had his bottom jaw destroyed and replaced by a steel one. At first I thought, "bear trap." Then I imagined it as real as possible, an uncanny valley of steel complete with a chin and bottom row of teeth, with squealing metallic sounds whenever his mouth moved. It's really fun to imagine the villains.

Writing Style:
Dan Abnett's writing style is a mixed bag. He does some things great: The Environments, the Battles, the Characters' Personalities, and the Villains.

But there were a few things that really bothered me:
1) Sentences are not written in chronological order.

Example: "This is Medea Betancore," I said, once his strong metallic grip released my hand.
If you are trying to visualize this scene, you hear a voice say the line... then realize it was Eisenhorn... then realize that he shook hands... with a cyborg... Sentence structure like this will throw you off if you enjoy "watching movies in your head" as you read fantasy. It is a minor detail, but as these creep up, you'll find yourself re-reading sentences and paragraphs over to get a better idea of what happened.

2 Pacing
At times, the book goes into great detail about where the crew went, but glosses over important details with just a few words. "We spent 2 months on X moon, then a year on Y planet, then traveled to a distant star for 3 months. And Fred was vaporized. And then we visited Inquisitor Z in a space station..." Wait a second... Fred died?! He was my favorite character and that's all we get? Why was Fred's death buried in a massive section of Warhammer codexes? Fred deserved an on-screen heroic death! Sigh... I'm gonna miss Fred.

3 Momentum
The books typically start out with a main goal, but the characters end up on a lot of side quests that almost feel like 20-50 page tangents. Then it's a big rush at the end to tell what happened. This book would have been much better if the important events were given more "screen time" and the story was paced more evenly.

These things won't bother most of the Warhammer 40K fans, though.

Action:
The action in this book is pretty damn awesome and has some of the most epic battles ever written. There are wars, skirmishes, demons, psykers, battle titans, space battles, robots, lasers, metal slugs, aliens... Warhammer fans will be happy to read these. They are "crazy-over-the-top-super-epic!"

Maturity: Older Teens - Adults
This book features violence, gore, torture, swearing, demonic possession, aliens, and mass destruction. So... umm... it's not for kids.

Overall:
I understand why Warhammer 40k fans love this book. Dan Abnett got all of the important stuff right. There are great battles, a deep story, great villains, and fantastic descriptions of environments. It definitely puts you in the heat of battle! This book also contains some unforgettable scenes of carnage! However, the books do have some flaws with the things that don't matter as much. If you're just in it for the Warhammer 40K Greatness, you will give this 5 stars. If you want to enjoy this as a book or focus on the writing style, then some of the little flaws will bother you.

Read this book if you love the Warhammer 40K environment.
Read this book if you want to push your sci-fi imagination.
Read this book if you love BATTLES!!!
Read this book if you love dark characters and dark stories.
Avoid this book, if the writing quirks that I mentioned are deal breakers.
Avoid this book, if you like happy stories.

I've read this about 3 times, and it does not dissapoint. If you're a science fiction fan of any sort, just buy this, specially if you are new to the Warhammer 40K universe. Dan manages to cram the WH40k universe with full of interesting details (not just about armies, or wars, but about cities, customs, planets, trade practices, etc), the characters are full of personality and the story is full of suspense, action, comedy, drama. A perfect story. The WH40K sometimes gets criticized as being cheesy and over the top: Eisonhorn brings everything together and makes it real and believable, in your face. Highly recommended. If someday a Hollywood type decides to bring the WH40K universe to the big screen (or preferebly in a top notch TV series), well, this is the story that would be chosen to portray IMO. It's Game of Thrones quality stuff, I'm not kidding!

Eisenhorn takes place in the Warhammer 40k universe and if you haven't read a book in this particular genre then you could do worse than start here. Eisenhorn describes the life and times of Gregor Eisenhorn an Imperial Inquisitor. The Inquisition is what you might expect given the naming; it's an organization that ruthlessly seeks out and destroys the 40k version of heretics and other things deemed improper by the Imperium of Man (the human side of things in this universe). Those improper things encompass a wide range, but primarily the Inquisition seeks out and destroys those forces dedicated to spreading Chaos. Chaos in the Warhammer 40k universe is a malevolent force that derives from the Warp and manifests itself physically in the form of daemons and those who utilize the Warp energies to further the agenda of Chaos. That agenda is nothing less than the destruction of the universe and the order it represents.

That's the basis for what Gregor Eisenhorn fights against and it's a constant struggle for members of the Inquisition against Chaos as Chaos is able to corrupt so easily and members of the Inquisition are so frequently exposed to sources of Chaos. The Eisenhorn stories are part action adventure and part mystery and Abnett does a good job of pacing things and keeping the reader on their toes. The various stories in the book describe Eisenhorn's wide ranging adventures in his fight against Chaos and the temptations that he avoids and those that he falls prey to. Eisenhorn employs a large coterie of characters as part of his retinue so the book is not solely focused on him, though it tends to revolve around him.

The weak point of the book takes place in the last third as there is a time shift that disconnects the first two books from the last and leaves the reader feeling somewhat adrift as many of the familiarities of the first two books are swept away. The last book also loses some of the breakneck pacing of the first two and drags a bit. Other than that the Omnibus itself is overall quite entertaining. While Abnett has not really written any more Eisenhorn stories he continues in this vein in Ravenor. The Ravenor character is derived from these Eisenhorn stories and while not required it's probably best to read this set of stories before reading Ravenor.